NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio — Perry County displays remnants of what many consider a bygone era in
America.

The waitress at a local restaurant readily tells you the chicken special was “made today” but
the meatloaf is left over from the previous day. You can run across a retiree who describes “dog
holes” and other coal-mining terms that he knows so well because he began working in the mines at
age 12.

But head east on I-70 and turn south on Rt. 13 early on a weekday morning, and the first thing
you notice is the rural rush hour of vehicles fleeing the county as if a tsunami were coming. One
resident likens the daily flow to precious jobs in Newark, Zanesville, Lancaster and Columbus as a
NASCAR race.

Politically speaking, Perry County is a lot like other southeastern Ohio counties where the
partisan balance is fairly even but you find few liberals. And discontented voters often turn
against the statewide candidate they supported just four years earlier.

Last time around, Perry County voting came within 0.3 percentage point of the actual outcome of
the 2010 governor’s race, which Republican John Kasich won by 2 points. A day spent talking to
voters across this Buckeye bellwether shows they might be split down the middle again this year,
despite the recent problems of Democrat Ed FitzGerald.

But no matter which candidate they prefer, all those who talked with
The Dispatch one day last week agreed on an overarching theme: The mostly rural area about
35 miles southeast of Columbus deserves more attention from whoever is running the show in the
state capital.

“It could be John Kasich, Ed FitzGerald or Elmer Fudd — I don’t care,” said Elizabeth Arnold,
longtime treasurer of long-struggling Northern Local schools.

Judge Luann Cooperrider of Perry County probate and juvenile courts remarked, “We just want
somebody who’s going to notice us down here.”

Duffy said, “We don’t get much attention at all. Never did.”

Perhaps because of residents’ collective chip on their shoulders, even many who had a favorite
gubernatorial candidate were quick to point out his flaws.

For example, Duffy counts herself a Democrat but admits she doesn’t know much about FitzGerald
other than “he seems like a nice guy.” So her vote may well wind up with Kasich, who “has done a
lot of good,” such as fixing Ohio’s budget problems and trying to bring industry to the state.

Valerie Wiggins, 46 — who became a lawyer about 21/2 years ago after attending law school at
night in Akron and driving school buses during the day — declares simply, “I like Kasich.” She said
she appreciates that Kasich still displays energy and is pushing new ideas even toward the end of
his first term.

But she doesn’t like the financial burden counties have to carry under Kasich because the state
is saving money by removing low-grade felons from prisons. Perry County uses a four-county regional
jail in Nelsonville that is sometimes full — meaning those reporting to serve their sentences must
be turned away.

Picking up the theme is Jerry McTeague, who has lived all of his 87 years in Perry County and
still works half-days handling paperwork at the county engineer’s office.

“I see some good in Kasich and some not so good,” said McTeague, who joined the Army during
World War II and was an MP in post-war Berlin.

He said he hates to take a narrow-minded view, but he’s not sure if FitzGerald would improve
anything he cares about.

At the same time, he says the county gets less funding per road-mile under Kasich than it used
to, and could really use more money to fix crumbling bridges.

“We don’t get much down here,” McTeague said.

Scott Helsel, 37, who has run a custom cabinetry and woodworking business just outside
Thornville since he was 18, said, “I like what Kasich’s been doing. ... I like that he’s been
trying to create jobs.”

Helsel already has three kids in Thornville Elementary, and a fourth will join them next year.
His wife now drives nearly 50 miles to a temporary job in Delaware County just north of Westerville
after being out of work for several months.

“There’s no work here. Everybody has to go to work in Columbus, Newark or Zanesville,” he said. “
We’re working harder for less money.”

But Helsel sees “glimmers of hope” that things are getting better, which is important to his
economic survival.

“If my customers don’t have money to spend, that makes it difficult for me.”

Perhaps FitzGerald’s problems can best be summed up by Melvin E. Rutter, 75, and his wife of 48
years, Clara, 65, who surveyed the world from the front porch of their New Lexington home of 30
years.

“Kasich ain’t done nothing. McCormick sounds like an idiot,” Clara said — who later said she
meant FitzGerald.

Mr. Rutter worked 35 years in shipping, saying he was making only $10.20 an hour when he left a
decade ago.

The couple “live from month to month” but aren’t as desperate as some seniors they know.

“They ain’t got nothin’ to live on. A lot of ’em eat cat food to live,” she said.

The bottom line for this pair of longtime Democrats: They can’t see voting for either candidate
this year.

Even those who back FitzGerald seem more opposed to Kasich than for the Cuyahoga County
executive.

Michelle Saegert, 42, a factory worker and union member, said, “I’m not a Kasich fan in any way,
shape or form. He might do good for some people, but I don’t think I’m in the top 1,000.”

She said she likes FitzGerald because he has “fresh ideas.” She hadn’t heard about him driving
for 10 years without a regular driver’s license.

One of those Perry County voters who commute many miles to a job is Jason Roshon, 31, of
Thornville. He is a firefighter in Franklin Township just west of Columbus, and he has a
kindergartener who began school last week.

Kasich’s attempts to slash collective-bargaining rights from public employee unions via Senate
Bill 5 in 2011 and his reductions in local government funding put Roshon firmly in FitzGerald’s
camp.

“I’m on the brink of being laid off because of state cuts,” said Roshon, adding that he has not
had a raise in five or six years. The township has a fire levy on the November ballot while the
department is “just trying to keep the doors open for the residents.”

“Kasich made a stand against public-employee unions” and “tried to take our voice away,” he
said. “There are a lot of police and firefighters who voted for him, and he just turned around and
cut us.”